Tigerhunter

Hey all, I primarily fish for Tigers and will start fishing for pure Muskies when the season starts in June. I recently was on a lake and landed 11 Tigers in 3 days, some of the best fishing I have ever had with them. I was mostly using a large 1 ounce Daredevil. I have two problems..... 1)I missed at least as many fish as I landed due to I believe the hook...including two that would have been personal bests by far. We have had poor hookup rates with Daredevils ever since we started using them. 2)Most importantly, a couple fish that I landed, one trolling and one casting had the lure pretty deep in the mouth and were bleeding. My man question is....do you guys change out the hooks for better ones or are both of these problems I had just part of the game? I would rather not catch the fish if it is going to be injured. Luckily I used some of the techniques from the video posted and surely helped at least one of them. Any input is greatly appreciated. [ Post made via Mobile Device ]

After watching this I have thought about painting a "ruler" on each side of the exterior of my boat so I can get a quick measurement without taking them out of the water. I was a little put of at the beginning, he made it seem like catch and release was a bad thing but I guess he is just trying to emphasize the fact that these fish are so fragile.

Nice, have you gotten many pike or tigers out of there? I went once and we only got a tiny northern (14"). I would like to get out there again but it's a long haul for me.

I am going to Otisco as I always do, we rent a cottage there so it is always a really good time even if the fishing isn't so hot. How about you?

So I have a question that sort of goes along with this....sorry to hijack Ronix.... What do you guys use to measure the barometric pressure? I bought this handheld one a couple years ago and it seemed to never change pressure...even through a storm. Sometimes I would check with a weather website to get the current reading but that is kind of hard to do while out on the water (I don't have a fancy phone )

I just started using braid again this year, and am backing my spool with some 12lb mono I had kicking around. It makes sense and I wish I started it before, it saves so much line that just gets tossed out anyways. I use this knot, which is basically the same as what I do with my mono leaders I use on my tip-ups (which is really braid=>mono).

I would highly support this as would all the guys I fish with. I spend the majority of my time fishing at Otisco and it seems that I can catch as many as I want between 14-29" but all of the 30"+ fish were caught by people who take everything home to eat and have no regard for the people who fish for the sport of it like my buddies and I do. If it gets changed to 40" I think it would help so much, it seems if a fish is caught that is over 30", it is kept. Please keep us posted with any news or updates so we can turn Otisco into a true trophy fishery.

I have only actually seen 1 pike in the lake, one that followed my lure in last fall, mid-30 incher, definitely not a pickerel. I have only fished oneida a few times and usually went for smallies. I have seen a few pictures of pike out of oneida, mostly on the north shore I believe.

I have seen pictures of someone who caught one in there, Oneida has just about everything, I know they stock tigers in the canal and mohawk river in marcy and they are connected to oneida, even though really far away. I would just target pike and keep at the back of your mind you have a very slim chance of getting a surprise.

Haha, I hear you on the open water. Never made it out to Cross, seems every lake I go to that has tigers in it I get skunked except for Otisco so we are always falling back there. Gonna go to Otisco Sun. and Wed. fingers crossed. Never have really ice fished Oneida, whereabouts are you gonna set up?

Thanks, hopefully I will get out and meet up with you guys, I live out towards Utica so its a pretty good trip for me but whats a few miles/hours for a chance at a "once in a lifetime fish".....haha. I actually just searched for directions and if I go on the south side of the finger lakes it will take me just over 2 hours to get to Waneta.....very exciting news.

Hey Ronix51, Just found this site in my search for pure-strain musky. I think I was one of the guys that got the medium and big tiger. My buddy was from Canandaigua and we were in a Blue Clam hub style shanty. The tiger was 42" and our biggest one even though we fish that lake way more than we should! If you want to go again let me know, I am going Sunday. I would love to get out towards you guys and try Waneta/Lamoka. Trevor